Father tells of seven-week nightmare stranded abroad

A family stranded in Pakistan for seven weeks during the coronavirus lockdown have thanked the local community for their support after arriving home in Stobswell.

Aftab Alam Qureshi said his family had faced an anxious wait after several flights with Qatar Airways were cancelled.

His family’s visit to Lahore had been unexpectedly extended during the lockdown and they were forced to pawn jewellery to pay for food and other essentials.

As they struggled to find either an alternative flight with Qatar Airways or a government-chartered flight, Aftab feared they would remain stranded.

The father-of-two said: “It was a real nightmare trying to get the situation resolved.

“Flights were cancelled and in some cases people were paying a lot of additional money to get home.

“We got confirmation of a flight during the day on Friday. Given I had a young family we were given priority boarding.

“This was confirmed by a call handler who usually works in the Qatar office in Lahore but had been working from home, and I can’t thank her enough.”

The family arrived at Lahore Airport ahead of a gruelling 30-hour trip before finally making it back to the City of Discovery.

Taxi driver Aftab added: “Lahore Airport was crazy – it was really busy and there was no social distancing in place.

“There were two other families on the flight who had similar stories to us – they were just relieved to be going home.

“We stopped off in Doha and another family from Dundee who had originally travelled from Sydney boarded. They had been through a similar nightmare to us.”

The family’s ordeal continued when they landed in Manchester to find their 16-month old daughter’s pram had not arrived.

But Aftab said he was just happy to be home, even if it means having to buy a new pram.

He added: “There were a lot more stringent measures in place in Manchester Airport with regard to social distancing.

“Some of our luggage unfortunately didn’t arrive with us, including the pram. We had to take a taxi back to Dundee which was also an additional cost. At this stage we are just relieved to be home.

“I would like to thank the local community for all their support.”

Aftab Alam Qureshi and his family were caught up in the international travel chaos resulting from the coronavirus pandemic.